Handball dream couple waves the double Olympic victory
Rune Dahmke is playing for Olympic gold. It's a big story he's writing with the German men's handball team. But the story his little family is writing is just as big. It's already shining golden.
The Olympic handball tournament is a massive challenge: The best teams in the world are gathered in two groups, and the group phase itself is a merciless elimination race. The path to gold leads through eight games in two weeks. It's a grueling slog. Germany has fought its way through, and it's playing sensationally for the triumph today (13:30 CET/ ZDF, Eurosport, and live ticker on ntv.de). For the German left wing, it's particularly tough: Rune Dahmke is playing two tournaments in parallel. Until yesterday, he was also emotionally heavily involved with the women's team - with a successful outcome: His fiancée Stine Bredal Oftedal triumphed and won the gold medal with Norway. Now Dahmke wants to follow suit.
As Oftedal's Norwegian team dismantled hosts France in the cauldron of Lille in front of nearly 30,000 spectators (29:21), Dahmke was sitting in the stands cheering on his fiancée. "It's brutal that we're both here, both in the Olympic final, and both have the chance to win gold. It's something I couldn't have dreamed of, and yes, it's something very special," Dahmke told Bild newspaper. Oftedal is one of the greatest players in the history of women's handball, the 32-year-old is World Handballer of the Year, a three-time world champion, and a five-time European champion. Only the Olympic gold medal was missing from her impressive collection of titles.
"The most beautiful thing"
Now the backcourt player filled this gaping hole. In the last game of her great career, she led her team to the title with five goals. "She's in her last tournament, and that's something very special for me, to be able to be there live and up close after the career she's had," Rune Dahmke revealed to handball-world. "That's the most beautiful thing."
In the Olympic village, there was of course room and time for shared moments even during the tightly scheduled timetable. They had coffee together, nothing more, Dahmke assured. After all, both had come to Paris with big goals. Dahmke posted couple photos - and asked his followers in his latest Instagram post how it would be "with a double Olympic final." Now there could even be double gold for the sporting household.
The handball professionals have been together since 2017, engaged since 2023. From the beginning and until the end, both have maintained a long-distance relationship, he has always played for THW Kiel, for which his father also played, Oftedal was active for the Hungarian top club Győr. Now both are also starting their shared future in Northern Germany. Soon, there could be gold around the neck and also on the finger. The wedding is reportedly coming up soon, Dahmke assured.
Dahmke still needs one medal
But first, there's something else to take care of. The 32-year-old has won the German championship multiple times with THW Kiel, he is a Champions League winner, and he scored the equalizing goal in the EM semi-final against Norway in 2016 that made the German team sensationally European champions. But before the Olympic Games in Rio, Dahmke was dropped again. He had to watch his colleagues win bronze on TV - the last medal a German team had won at a major tournament.
Oftedal's great career is over, it ended with the biggest triumph. "To be able to end my career this way is almost too good to be true," she said before the final. Now she will be nervous with her fiancé, who will go into the biggest game of his long career just 24 hours later.
Dahmke is an emotional anchor in his team with as many as nine (!) Olympic debutants. The northerner is a volcano on the court, supporting his colleagues with a vast arsenal of positive emotions. Before Paris, the veteran was only a reserve member of the German team, but after the first game he was right in the thick of it: Because right wing Tim Hornke injured himself just a few seconds into the Olympic opener against Sweden, coach Alfred Gislason brought Dahmke back into the team. And thus made him part of one of the greatest stories the German Olympic team has written in Paris. The final chapter is yet to be written.
After securing the Olympic gold medal with Norway, Rune Dahmke's fiancée Stine Bredal Oftedal became one of the greatest players in women's handball history. Now, Rune aims to follow in her footsteps and contribute to a potential double Olympic gold for their sporting household, as they play for Germany in the men's handball tournament. The German left wing is determined to write his own chapter in this Olympic story, having already experienced the excitement of triumph in the women's tournament.
